Pinched by a budget cut and lagging revenue, the city's Parks & Recreation Department is cash starved. Voters may be asked next year to approve a property tax increase to help close the budget gap. The Parks & Recreation Department is asking the City-Parish Council to countenance fee increases in an effort to head off cut-backs in services, according to The Advocate.
The council will vote on the fee increases, which would up the cost of participation in athletic programs as well as facility rentals, to generate nearly $200,000 per year. Gerald Boudreaux, the department's director, tells the daily city-parish officials are also considering asking voters to approve an increase in the property tax millage, currently at 1.92 mills and a level that has remained the same for more than 40 years despite the city more than quadrupling the number of facilities Parks & Rec maintains, in an election next April. That, too, would need to be approved by the CPC.
Read The Advocate's report here.